Korean Chicken and Accounting

Wow, busy week last week, with going back to work. It's all good though! So first off, accounting for my goals:

Weight: Down 9 pounds! Yay me!
Exercise: 5 of 7 days

• Monday: Cardio and core stregthening
• Tuesday: Water Aerobics - 60 minutes
• Wednesday: Cardio and core strengthening
• Thursday: None
• Friday: Cardio and core strengthening
• Saturday: Cardio workout with personal trainer - 60 minutes - brutal but fun!
• Sunday: None

Food Journaling: Every day!

Projects:

I made this scarf from a cool art yarn called Flounce that my friend Cathy sent me! It was a very easy, quick and fun knit.

I also finished a lunchbox that I started over break. I found this cool Dr. Seuss fabric and thought that my artist child would love it. He does!

So there's a blog I'm following called Six Sisters Stuff - you can see the link in the sidebar. They have great recipes and I found the below recipe on their website. My kids gave the recipe a huge thumb's up! It's a keeper!

Korean BBQ Chicken

1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup soy sauce (low sodium is fine)
1 cup water
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp minced garlic
Sesame seeds
10 chicken tenders
Steamed broccoli
Cooked rice

Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and spread out in a single layer in a 7x11" pan.
In a medium saucepan over high heat, whisk together the sugar, soy sauce, water, onion powder, garlic, and ground ginger. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer 5 minutes.
Remove mixture from heat and whisk in lemon juice and red pepper flakes.
Pour mixture over chicken. Cover pan with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, stirring halfway through to make sure chicken is evenly covered with sauce.
When finished cooking, drain some of the leftover juices into a saucepan. Heat up and add cornstarch to make a thicker sauce.
Add steamed broccoli to chicken in the pan and mix gently.
Put chicken/broccoli mixture over cooked rice and drizzle thickened sauce over the top. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

My Notes:

1. I used 1 3/4 cup chicken broth and 1/4 cup soy sauce in place of the soy sauce and water. I find things with that much soy sauce to be too salty.

2. I used minced ginger instead of ginger powder.

3. I only used about 1/3 of a cup of sugar - honey or agave nectar might be even better

4. Instead of red pepper flakes, I used 2 tsp of siracha

5. I added siracha to the sauce at the end because I wanted more of a hot and sweet flavor. I think I added about 2 teaspoons, but this could be adjusted to taste. Red pepper flakes would definitely work too.

6. I used boneless skinless chicken thighs because that's what I had.

And finally, a couple of photos of my dogs. It was so beautiful this weekend and they enjoyed being outside. I was trying to get a photo of Shiloh with his ear sticking up. It was quite amusing, but I couldn't quite get it. I think though, that these two photos are fun!

First Shiloh!

Then Willie!

German Bread and other musings

So someone at work asked me today how my journaling is going. I looked at her with a blank stare...Journaling? Oh, food and exercise journal! Yes, that is going really well! I've been able to write down what I am eating every day and I am also recording my exercise. Prior to the Christmas holiday, I was considering doing a 21 day Vegan diet. However, as I considered it, I had to think about what I could easily do and maintain. A new diet with new foods, with boys who would not have been supportive of that would have been much more difficult. So I made the decision to make my commitment to exercise and journaling what I am eating.

Another change that I am making is having a BAS every day for lunch. BAS is "Big-a$$ Salad." I've been reading a great blog by a woman who lost 135 pounds and has kept it off for 5 years! She eats a BAS every day for lunch. So I've done that every day this week. Lots of creative ideas and thoughts. Today I had the soup I made yesterday on top of my salad at lunch. I also do something very strange - I put my salad in the microwave for about 30 seconds. It takes the edge off of the cold and makes it so much more enjoyable for me.

There is a great German Bakery in Colorado Springs. I love love love their rye bread. It's delicious and I've been on a quest to find a recipe that replicates their bread. I think that I found it! Fair warning - it's pretty time-consuming, but the time is really in letting it rise and do its stuff.

I followed the directions exactly as written and OMG, it's delicious! I'm making more next weekend - two loaves! I may never buy bread from the store again. I love the fact that it only has 1 Tablespoon of oil in the whole loaf and has honey, not white sugar.

Bauernbrot

1 large loaf

from http://www.whats4eats.com/breads/bauernbrot-recipe

Ingredients

Dough Starter

• Bread flour -- 3/4 cup
• Rye flour -- 3/4 cup
• Honey or malt syrup -- 3 tablespoons
• Water, lukewarm -- 1 1/2 cups
• Instant yeast -- 1/2 teaspoon

Flour mixture

• Bread flour -- 2 1/2 cups
• Caraway seeds -- 2 tablespoons
• Salt -- 1 1/2 teaspoons
• Instant yeast -- 1/2 teaspoon
• Oil -- 1 tablespoon
• Cornmeal -- for the baking tray

Method

1. Add the ingredients for the starter to a large bowl and mix together until smooth. Set aside for 10 minutes for the yeast to activate.
2. While the starter is resting, mix together the remaining ingredients except for the oil and cornmeal. Pour the flour mixture over the starter. Do not stir. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean towel and set aside for at least two hours and up to five hours. The starter will bubble up through the flour mixture.
3. Add the oil to the flour mixture and use a wooden spoon to stir the flour mixture into the starter. As the mixture comes together, remove the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead for about 10 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. The dough might be a little sticky. Knead in just enough extra flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands.
4. Set the dough aside to rest for about 10 minutes, then knead for another 5 to 10 minutes.
5. Set the dough in a large, lightly oiled bowl and lightly oil the top of the dough. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean towel and set in a draft-free area of the kitchen to rise until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Remove the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Punch down the dough and lightly knead it 3 or 4 times. Form into a ball, return to the bowl, cover and let rise for another 45 minutes or so.
6. Preheat oven to 450°F and set the shelf at the lowest level. Put a small metal pan in the oven (you will use this later). Lightly press down on the dough and form it into a ball. Sprinkle the cornmeal onto a baking sheet and set the dough onto the baking sheet. Lightly oil the top of the dough and cover it with plastic wrap. Set aside to rise for another hour.
7. Use a sharp knife or razor blade to slash the top of the dough in 3 parallel lines about 1/4-inch thick. Then slash with another set of 3 lines perpendicular to the first set. Use a spray bottle to mist the dough with water.
8. Set the baking sheet in the oven and pour about 1 cup of water into the small pan to create steam. Shut the door immediately and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 400°F and bake for another 35 to 45 minutes. (An insta-read thermometer inserted into the middle of the loaf should register 190°F.)
9. Set the loaf on a cooling rack and let cool completely.

This is the starter bubbling up through the flour mixture

This is the final loaf of bread - I should have made the cuts deeper. I forgot to take photos in between. The Broncos were playing the Steelers. I was lucky to get this!

Happy New Year

Wow, it's been a while since I've blogged! I've been busy with making things, but didn't bother to document them. Now I wish that I had done so.

Knowing myself, I know that if I want to accomplish things, I need to set specific goals. I can do project-oriented things well and love the feeling of finishing something, but it's the more nebulous goals that are harder for me to reach. So, I have a "To Do" list for 2012. Here it is:

1. Lose 5 pounds per month
2. Exercise 5 - 7 times per week
3. Organize the house better (Ok, that's still a bit nebulous, but I do have specific goals - related to #4)
4. Spend less time on the computer and more time doing things around the house (like organizing)
5. Make at least 50 things this year - one per week (and document this somewhere)
6. Keep daily log of exercise and food






So I have a composition book in which I have started logging my food, my exercise and my accomplishments around the house. I know that with logging food, it has to be easy, hence the book. We joined a great gym, Lifetime Fitness, and have already logged some time there and are working out with a trainer, Moses.











Today we organized the desk in the office, which was no small feat! We found 3 1/2" floppy discs (which my children found hysterical), Office XP software and games which will no longer run on any computer we have. It felt good to do some purging and finally find that darn stapler I knew I had!


















I've also done some cooking and prepping for being organized with cooking once I go back to work (Monday - eek!)


Dinner tonight - Crock Pot Jambalaya

Slow Cooker Jambalaya from www.plainchicken.blogspot.com

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1 inch cubes - I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1 pound smoked turkey sausage, sliced - I used cajun chicken sausage from Sunflower Market

1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice

3 Tbsp dried minced onion flakes - I used fresh onions

1 cup chicken broth

2 teaspoons dried oregano

2 teaspoons dried parsley

2 tsp minced garlic

2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper - omitted, the sausage has good spice

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

white rice or instant rice (I used 2 packs of Uncle Ben's Ready Rice - Garlic & Butter flavor) - Cooked brown rice to serve with this.

In a slow cooker, mix the chicken, sausage, tomatoes with juice, onion, garlic, celery, and broth. Season with oregano, parsley, Cajun seasoning, cayenne pepper, and thyme. (I do this the night before and put it in the fridge. I put it in the slow cooker before I leave in the morning.)

Cover, and cook 7 to 8 hours on Low, or 3 to 4 hours on High. Mix in cooked rice cook for about 15 minutes to warm through.

Verdict: Delicious!

One more thing. It's snowing!

Bounty from the Garden

One of the authors who I love to read is Diane Mott Davidson. She writes about a caterer in Colorado named Goldie. The books have recipes included in them too, which is something I love. Her most recent book is called Crunch Time. Honestly, this was not as good as some of her books, but there was a recipe in there that really intrigued me, Puerco Cubano or Cuban Pork.

So tonight was the night. I knew I had a great deal of nice fresh veggies in the garden, so when I came home, I went to the garden and picked some green beans, fresh chard and cilantro. The recipe did not call for chard, but I added it. It also did not call for onions, but I think that almost everything needs onions!

We served it over brown rice, with freshly steamed green beans and cherry tomatoes picked right off of the plants. Oh my!



Puerco Cubano:

Olive oil
1 pound ground pork
2 cloves freshly minced or crushed garlic
1 onion, chopped
2 cups chopped kale
2 teaspoons demi-glace (chicken or veal) - I used chicken stock, some worcestershire sauce and some white wine
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups fresh orange juice
1/4 cup fresh lime juice

garnish with cilantro

in large skillet, combine olive oil, chopped onions and chopped garlic. Once fragrant, add ground pork and cook until browned. Add chopped kale and cook until kale softens. Sprinkle with flour, salt, pepper and oregano. Add demi-glace or chicken stock mixture. Stir together, then once it thickens, add the orange juice and lime juice. Serve over brown rice.

This received rave reviews from the teenagers at my house. In fact, there are NO leftovers except the rice.

We served it with the fresh green beans and freshly picked cherry tomatoes.

Finished!

Over spring break, I bought some beautiful Alpaca Fiber at Serendipidity Yarn in Buena Vista. It was one of the first that I spun to a finished fiber and I just finished a really great shawl. I'm calling it my "Lichen Shawl" because of the beautiful colors in it. I had knit it fairly quickly then had misjudged when to start the ruffle and had to unravel it a number of time. In early May, I got sick of it and put it away. Last night I was contemplating starting another project and decided that I needed to finish it, so I did. I still mis-judged slightly, but I was able to un-ply and use a single ply to finish the bind off. It's blocking now, but I'm pretty proud of it and pleased with how it looks. So here is the progress:

This - raw fiber

This - finished yarn

This - blocking on the bed

And finished!

The decisions we make

As parents, we are faced with decisions about our children from the moment we conceive. On my vacation, I ran into a family whose decisions impact their life every day. I want to tell the story of that family.

Once upon a time, there was a young woman who found herself pregnant. She was a teenager, not married and living in a very small town. She sought prenatal care for her child, at at one point was told that her child had terrible birth defects. She was advised to end the pregnancy and was told that he would likely not live to be born, and if she did carry him to full term, that he would not live long or would be a vegetable. She declined to end her pregnancy, instead opting to give birth to her baby.

This baby was born, and he did have a number of problems, the mos pressing with his brain being malformed and misshapen. She named this child Angel.

Angel did not die. He grew, he learned to hold his head up, he learned to eat, he learned to talk. Soon he entered school. His vision was in question, and therapists focused on helping this little boy learn to walk independently. He started with a walker, then progressed to a cane. He greeted people, he would tell you about his mom and his grandma and grandpa. He was a cheerful and happy child.

Fast forward 4 years. Yesterday I was talking to a friend of mine before heading home. I saw three people walking down the street, two women and a tall young man, wearing a jaunty cap, moving at a fast pace, aided only by the slight support of a cane. As they came closer, I realized that I knew them. It was Angel and his mom and grandmother. They went into a restaurant and I entered to talk with them. Angel greeted me, told me about his dog who had died, and made sure that I had greeted his grandmother. He was delightful, engaging and definitely NOT a vegetable.

The decisions we make, indeed. The experts don't always know everything or what is best.

Vacation

So looking here, I see that I have not posted since April. In reflecting, I can see that I was somewhat busy but also in a bit of a funk.

We have just returned from 10 days of blissful vacation. It was so nice to be somewhere where I didn't have to worry about work or what was going to happen that day. We played in the lake, played in the river and fished. I saw some good friends, laughed a lot and played a lot and spent some great time with my parents!

I knitted, I spun, I cooked and I napped.

And today, we drove home. We spent about an hour parked on the top of Wolf Creek Pass, waiting for the car to cool down.

And now, we are home. While I could have spent a few more days on vacation, I am thinking of sleeping in my own bed with great joy.

And the great thing? Me, the person who has never been able to get an orchid to bloom.... walked into the bathroom and found that one of the orchids I put in the bathtub before leaving has now put out a beautiful bloom.

Life is good!